


Independant Women

by Ultra



Category: Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Curiosity, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Intrigue, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:23:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-series Leverage/post-Avengers. Parker meets Natasha.</p><p>(originally written for theron09, based on her prompt: Parker meets Natasha)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Independant Women

Friends of friends did not automatically get along, but if they cared anything for the people that connected them, they always tried. These women were not usually the type to care for anyone or anything, it was not their way or their nature, but being part of a team had changed them both. Now those two teams had collided, for the sake of work, but via old friends. With everyone else accounted for and attending to their assignments, Natasha Romanoff found herself alone... well, not quite alone.

“I do know that you’re there,” she said, without expression or tone, eyes lifting just enough to catch sight of a flash of blonde hair somewhere towards the ceiling.

She was smart, but perhaps not smart enough, since she was still looking up when Parker landed behind her.

“Maybe you really are as good as Eliot says,” the thief remarked as she stepped around the SHIELD agent.

Natasha never moved at all, nothing but her eyes following Parker as she made an almost perfect circle around her. She stalked like a cat, but there was no concern that she might pounce. Reading people came pretty easy to a well trained agent, and though this Parker person was off-kilter at best, Romanoff felt comfortable enough here.

“So, no superpowers, right?” asked Parker as she completed her circle and hopped up to sit on the table, kicking her feet like a child.

A frown briefly passed over Natasha’s face. This woman was a curious mixture of cat and child so far. It was intriguing to say the least, but Natasha was not willing to admit it was confusing too.

“I have a specific skill set,” she revealed in the vaguest of ways. “But no, none of the special enhancements some of my team have,” she admitted, folding her arms.

Parker smirked at that. Eliot held the same pose at times, usually when he was getting pissed about something, or being defensive. She knew that was what it meant, a psychologist told her once, because she did it too. Not as much as Eliot, or Natasha she suspected, but it still meant the same thing.

“I think we’re better,” she shrugged, turning to play around with the gadgets laid out on the table she was sat on the edge of. “I mean, machines, super serums, shape shifting, it’s cool but it’s like added extras,” she went on to explain, her hand straying towards the futuristic looking gun on the far side of the table. “We’re just good at what we do, naturally talented...”

“Naturally curious in your case,” said Natasha as she grabbed up the weapon before Parker got a chance. “You might consider reining that in around here,” she said coolly, putting the safety on, pushing the gun into the back of her waistband.

Parker narrowed her eyes and stared the agent down. Neither of them were going to give in, both were too stubborn. 

“I don’t have to be curious,” she said, hopping down from her seat. “I already know everything I need to know about you, and anything you want to know about me, you can just ask,” she said easily as she moved to walk away.

Parker was good, so was Romanoff. As light fingered as the thief tried to be, the agent knew something was wrong, that she was being played. There was a grapple for the gun at her back, and Nat and Parker both twisted and turned in a tangle of limbs, fighting in a non-violent way, until they were both holding onto the firearm by a few fingers each.

Under their raised hands that held the gun aloft, their eyes met. Parker smiled, Natasha returned the look, and then they both laughed. It wasn’t the girlish giggling of a pair of silly school girls, or even the haughty clever chuckle of fancy ladies. This was a release, an understanding, a relief in knowing they were exactly what they seemed. Parker and Natasha were both so good, they were equal, and this moment they formed a deal that required no words at all.

The gun was tossed away and the unlikely pair of friends stepped up to each other, battle ready and smiling still. Their acrobatic ‘fight’ was a sight to see, though no-one was watching, and it went on for some time before either were tired or bored.

* * *

It was hours later that they were found by the others, sat lotus style at either end of the table, with all the things that had been spread upon it haphazardly shifted to the floor. Tony, Hardison, and even Bruce were not at all impressed to find expensive electronics and weaponry flung aside for the sake of two women, eating pizza and sharing stories of the past. Eliot just tilted his head and stared at the pair sat there together, smiling as he realised they were so much sisters in arms in their own strange way. Romanoff might be more violent and have a past much more filled with red than Parker could ever imagine, but the little thief had her dark-side too.

“Spencer,” Natasha greeted him, unfolding her legs as she stepped down from the table. “You didn’t tell me how interesting your friend was, or how skilled.”

“Eliot taught me some of it,” Parker admitted as she hopped down from the table too, licking her fingers free of pizza sauce. “The rest... I dunno. I guess it comes naturally.”

“We could’ve used you in Budapest,” Natasha noted as she glanced at her new friend.

Eliot blanched at the thought.

“We don’t talk about Budapest,” he said definitely, crossing his arms. “Barton said you remembered that differently to the rest of us.”

Natasha only smirked and gave her full attention back to Parker. 

“I still think you could be an asset to SHIELD,” she told her, as she already had three times in their conversation.

“I don’t always play well with others,” Parker shrugged. “Besides, you’re all about alien stuff and that’s more Hardison’s thing. I like diamonds, and lift shafts, and safebreaking.”

Her eyes glittered like the precious stones she had mentioned, just from thinking about each of the items she adored. There was no way Parker could be an undercover agent, not because she wasn’t capable, just because she would have to obey rules. That was one major difference between her and Natasha. Agent Romanoff was a soldier, built to take orders. Parker was a free spirit, always wanting to do her own thing.

“You two, as friends, that could work,” Eliot admitted. “But as a partnership? Not a chance,” he shook his head.

Natasha and Parker shared a look then, sure they had both read his awkard tone and expression correctly.

“But think what an unstoppable team we could make,” said Natasha smartly.

A shudder ran through Eliot, knocking the smile right off his face when both woman turned to look at him then. They wore twin smiles that screamed danger for all who crossed the path of this particular twosome. They really would be unstoppable, in all the best and worst ways at the same time. It was only when his lips twitched with words he dare not say and panic filtered through him, that Eliot saw those smiles crack - they were playing him.

“There’s something wrong with you,” he declared, pointing at them with one hand each. “Both of you.”

All Parker and Natasha could do, as Eliot walked away, was laugh.


End file.
